Your Moving Day Survival Guide: What to Have On-Hand

The boxes are packed and loaded onto the truck, your kids have been shuttled off to grandma and grandpa’s for the day, and even the pets are safely tucked away at daycare—it’s time to pick up and go!

But while you’ve likely spent countless hours carefully packing and repacking your most important possessions, often eager home buyers forget to set aside some day one essentials—what you’ll need the minute you turn the key at that new house. And it might not be what you think! Prep a box or bag of these essentials and be sure it’s on-hand and accessible on moving day.

• Toilet paper: enough said!
• Pain killers and any prescriptions your family needs: there’s nothing worse than a headache, backache or other ache and pain on moving day
• Band-Aids: another thing you might not think of, until you or the movers need one…
• Bottled water: be sure you have enough for you, your family and the movers, plus any guests who might pop by
• Disinfectant wipes and paper towels: even if you’ve already done a deep clean on the new digs, plenty of muddy footprints, dusty boxes and other spills can easily happen with that many people and that much stuff coming and going   
• Plunger: while you probably won’t need it in the immediate short-term, this is plumbing you aren’t 100% familiar with just yet—better to be safe
• Trash bags: whether it’s tossing the leftovers from lunch, or the extra packing materials you’ve stored, be sure you’ve got plenty of heavy duty plastic trash bags on hand and ready to go
• Phone chargers: today’s not the day to run out of juice!
• Scissors, pocketknife or Leatherman: someone’s got to get those boxes open!
• Flashlight: especially if you’ve got an unfinished basement or attic space to contend with, a flashlight will ensure you’re seeing exactly what’s going on—and what’s going where
• Air freshener or candle: open the windows and air out the place!
• Notebook and pen or pencil: lots is likely going to pop into your head as you’re shuttling back and forth, and making sure everything’s where it needs to be—jot down what you need to pick up or other notes-to-self to check out later in the day or week

Happy moving!